A review by cosyqueer
Sinister Legacy by Harleigh Beck

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I feel weird saying I enjoyed this book, given it’s extremely dark themes and morally corrupt characters, but I really did.
It must have been so hard to get the tone of this story right, to weave in the crime/thriller aspects with the steamy, toxic romance all in this almost slasher horror context, but Harleigh Beck got everything spot on. The book was fast-paced, twisty and completely over-the-top in the best way, while also being incredibly nuanced and emotional. The way in which the heavy, frightening scenes were balanced with petty high school drama was expertly done and delightfully tongue-in-cheek.
I loved reading from the police officers’ perspectives and the scenes in the interrogation rooms. I’m a sucker for detective shows and these moments really scratched that itch!
The romance/friendship elements were really well done, I appreciated the variety of relationships explored and their impact on Keira’s motivations/state of mind in particular.
What I enjoyed most were the conversations around her father’s death sentence and the death penalty in general. Is her father’s death what the families of the victims deserve, is it better for the community for him to be gone, etc.. Keira is constantly questioning when and if killing can ever be justified, and whether eradicating evil from the world should be considered murder. I appreciated these moments throughout the book, bringing everything back to big questions and innermost thoughts felt very intimate and made the plot all the more interesting to follow.
I’m giving Sinister Legacy a four instead of a five because I thought at times Keira’s motivations were over-explained, and it didn’t quite give me goosebumps at the end. That said, I did really like the two epilogues and thought they were necessary to the story. The last scene was another really stellar addition to the death penalty conversation.
Overall, a really REALLY good book which I would recommend widely to adults who love a Hannibal/Silence of the Lambs moment, my dark romance friends and, of course, my true crime girlies.
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